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AN ENLARGED FOREST AREA A 
NECESSITY TO THE STATE. 



BY .1. P. BROWN, COININERSVILLE. 



[Reprint from Transactions of the Indiana Horticultural Society.] 



D, PRINTER. INDIANAPOLIS 



152 



41470 

AN ENLARGED FOREST AREA A NECESSITY 
TO THE STATE. 



BY J. P. BROWN, CONNERSVILLE. 



. It may seem paradoxical to assert that ninety acres will produce a 
greater income to the farmer who maintains one-tenth of his land in 
forest, than one hundred acres, all of which are cultivated in annual 
crops (and probably in a single instance that may be a wrong affirmation), 
yet if it were largely the practice of land-owners to preserve one acre in 
ten of their "holdings as timber land, the benefits so derived would un- 
questionably far exceed the apparent loss of the uncultivated woodlands. 

There was a time, while western farmers were surrounding their fields 
with living fences of Osage orange, when an outcry was heard that for 
several rods on each side the hedge no crops could be grown. Yet, ex- 
perience proved that the falling leaves, blown a distance from the hedge, 
fertilized the fields greatly, while the shelter afforded by the living fence 
very materially benefitted the crops, and often the tallest corn and largest 
ears were found in the few rows nearest the hedge, they having received 
the greatest share of its beneficent influence. 

Fifty years ago, peaches and apples were abundant in Indiana wher- 
ever these fruits were planted; fruit crops were not destroyed by insects 
or by frosts, and little care was required until time to gather the crop. 

At that period the State was heavily wooded, except ttie portion of 
such farms as had been cleared, amounting, possibly, to one-fourth of their 
area. 

Since that time, each year has witnessed the increasing size of the 
cultivated fields and diminishing proportion of woodland, until at present 
we have less timber than some of the western prairie States. 

With the decrease of woodlands, there have come with great rapidity, 
noxious insects, seeking food and shelter in the orchard, field and garden. 




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153 

The inevitable relations between causes and resulting effects constitute 
the laws of nature; and when a nation interferes with God's inflexible 
laws, that people must abide the results. 

Many of these insects formerly inhabited the native trees and plants 
in the great forests, and as these were destroyed, they have adapted them- 
selves to the new order of things, as made by man, and now devour our 
plants and fruits. Nature provided checks upon the too rapid increase of 
insect foes. The wood, offering secluded nesting places for innumerable 
birds, resounded with joyous notes of these warblers; their natural food, 
wild berries, seeds and myriads of insects. Now all is changed. What 
few birds are permitted to live are insufficient to hold in check the in- 
sects, which increase immoderately. 

Again, with the modifying influence of the forest, extremes of temper- 
ature were less than at present. Fruit buds are now destroyed with far 
greater frequency than formerly. If we have a crop of peaches one year 
in four, we rejoice when the fourth year comes. The millions of leaves 
and twigs and tree-tops in a great forest attract the moisture and cause 
frequent precipitations during the growing season. The rain in turn feeds 
and waters the trees, each dependent upon the other. 

With the forests destroyed, the droughts of summer have become more 
severe each season, so that springs, rivulets and streams which formerly 
flowed the entire year, now become dry during the summer months. The 
elm trees and fir are dying by thousands, solely from drought, and other 
trees, attacked by insects, are unable to recover or overcome the attack, 
their vitality being so reduced by drought. 

The apple suffers almost every year from this same cause, and other 
fruits are frequently seriously injured from want of water to supply the 
necessary sap. 

Field crops are reduced in quantity, and impaired in quality, to far 
greater extent in recent years, since the removal of so vast an area of 
forest. 

On slightly rolling lands, as well as in the steeper hills of southern 
Indiana, the erosion of the soil has been of such magnitude as to be ap- 
palling, and on account of the increased difficulties in tilling the soil, the 
young men are leaving the old farms and increasing the density of our 
overpopulated cities. 

A railway official remarked to me recently, "Why, we have an abund- 
ance of timber in the country; I can look in every direction and see large 
forests in the distance from any point on our line." Yes, they are all in 
the distance. Co where you will, and see ahead a "will-o'-the-wisp" just 
beyond you, but when you approach, it is but a few remnants of a once 
noble forest; such trees as can neither be split into rails or firewood, nor 
yet be of value to the manufacturer. 



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There can be no plausible explanation given to this changed condition 
of the affairs of nature, other than a too rapid destruction of the forests. 

The old world has passed through the ' same experience. Austria, 
France and Germany recognize it officially, and these governments require 
landed proprietors to maintain a certain amount of forest. 

Spain's agriculture has degenerated from loss of her mountain forests. 
The pasturing of great herds of goats on her mountains has prevented a 
renewal of the timber. Syria, the dreary desert of to-day, was once a most 
fertile region while the cedars covered the Lebanon Mountains. 

The olive, the vine and fig tree flourished in Solomon's time, while 
wheat fields and barley were so abundant as to merit a description in 
Holy Writ. 

A nation threatened with war by some foreign foe makes an appeal 
to the patriotism of its people which is immediately responded to by every 
loyal citizen. All are ready to sacrifice personal interest for the preserva- 
tion of their country. 

A catastrophe more devastating than war menaces the American conti- 
neut, and demands the highest proof of national patriotism. The effects of 
war are subdued in a decade, and obliterated in a generation. The cli- 
matic changes caused by man's reversal of nature's laws, in the removal 
of vast areas of timber, will not be revoked in centuries, unless there 
shall be a united effort upon the part of the government and all the people, 
to restore a reasonable portion of forest. Similar conditions, if not more 
disastrous, to those existing in Syria, in Spain, and the proud Roman na- 
tion, are sure to await America if this waste and destruction does not 
soon cease. 

A half century hence, and fires, started by man's utter carelessness, 
will have completed the destruction of the forests on our western moun- 
tain sides, while the axe will have consummated its work of demolishing 
every vestige of timber upon the plain, unless a radical change is entered 
upon by our legislatures, backed by public sentiment. It is not too soon 
to warn the people of impending danger. 

The effort of this appeal is to show* the advantages to the individual 
land owner, in planting and maintaining not less than one-tenth of his 
land, and in many regions, a fourth, in timber trees, and to urge the State 
and National governments to some efforts which will result in forest 
extensions. 

Of all the adversaries of shade trees, whether insects, bacteria, fungi 
or diseases of any character, there is no enemy so insiduous, persistent and 
damaging as the electric lineman, acting, probably, under orders of his 
superiors. 



155 

Before a protest can be offered by one who has planted, watered and 
zealously cared for a few shade trees on the line of his property, lo! these 
many years, the lineman with his saw and axe has slipped in and so 
mutilated these trees that their value is forever gone (if the trees are not 
killed outright), without redress for the patient owner, for the lineman is 
irresponsible, and the coiiipany which employs and directs him have such 
a political pull with the powers that be, as to effectually bar any claims 
of the landholder. 

Public opinion should condemn any electric company which pursues 
such damaging policy, and legislative action should prohibit the mutila- 
tion of any street tree without first obtaining the consent of the property 
owner in writing. 

Almost every locality in Indiana possesses large establishments for 
manufacturing furniture, wagon work, carriages, building material, farm 
implements, and the thousands of articles made from wood, and for which, 
so far, no other material has been discovered which will serve the pur- 
pose as well as wood. 

Every railway consumes large quantities of wood in construction and 
repairs of cars, in fences, and for cross ties. 

Has it ever occurred to capitalists engaged in these manufactures, or 
to officials of the various railways, or to the landholders of our State, that 
an end must soon come to the supply of material which keep these indus- 
tries in operation? 

The principal wood now in demand, oak, is almost entirely brought 
from other States, and lumbermen who are best -informed estimate that 
the supply in the entire United States will last less than a score of years. 

Arkansas, Tennessee, the mountainous region of North Carolina and 
Virginia still have some oak timber, but it will be mostly exhausted by 
1910. With the exhaustion of the oak, the supply of other woods rapidly 
diminishing (walnut, butternut, cherry, all are gone), hundreds of manu- 
factories will be compelled to close down, or be converted into other uses, 
while many thousands of our laboring citizens will have to seek other em- 
ployment, and capital must obtain investment in other channels. 

Writers upon forestry have dwelt upon the longevity of the oak, the 
great age of the sequoia, the vast length of time required for trees to 
reach maturity, overlooking the fact that many trees are of far greater 
value while comparatively young than when they become old and matured. 

The carriage manufacturer guarantees his wheels to be of young, sec- 
ond growth hickory; none other will be permissible, and no other sub- 
stance will take its place. The great wagon manufactories of Indiana will 
not deny that young, live, thrifty oak is far stronger, more elastic and 
better suited for their work than old, brittle wood of larger trees. What 



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pioneer Hoosier ever took an ax handle from a tree two feet in diameter? 
No, lie sought the young and thrifty pecan or shell-bark hickory, which 
possesses the strength, elasticity and smoothness required for this purpose. 

If the beautiful grain of quartered oak is the principal requirement, 
then a tree of thirty to fifty inches diameter must be found, but in the 
great majority of uses to which wood is applied, trees from twelve to 
twenty inches diameter are better than those which are larger. 

In the growth of a tree there is but little connection between the cen- 
tral heart wood and the outer sap and bark. Often the heart has been 
formed, outlived many successive quantities of sap and bark, and has 
died, become brittle and fallen away into dust, while the outer growth 
continues a thousand years after the central portion has entirely disap- 
peared. I know of one giant cedar in Washington 65 feet of girth and 
265 feet in height, which is alive and growing thriftily in its outer walls, 
which are but three or four feet in thickness, yet this hollow tree has 
been for ages the abode of wild animals. 

Youth is life, energy, strength, vitality, elasticity, in lumber, or trees, 
as well as animal life. 

Careful measurements made by the writer in the last thirty years, and 
observations in nearly all the States in the Union, establish the fact that 
young and thrifty trees develop very rapidly, many species enlarging their 
trunk diameter one inch each year up to the twentieth year, after which. 
owing to the exhaustion of plant food within reach, and interference by 
roots of adjacent trees, the growth is somewhat diminished. 

Average annual increase in girth after planting: 

Ash 2.S 

Birch 4.4 

Buckeye 2.1 

Chestnut 2.9 

Catalpa 3.4 

Cottonwood 7.0 

Elm, American 3.2 

Hemlock 1.7 

Hickory 2.4 

Honey locust 3.0 

Kentucky coffee tree 2.6 

Larch 3.0 

Locust 4.0 

Lombardy poplar 5.5 

Lime 3.3 

Maple, white 5.8 



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Maple, red 2.0 

Maple, sugar 2.1 

Mulberry 4.0 

Oak, red 3.3 

Oak, black 2.3 

Oak, burr 2.5 

Oak, willow 2.5 

Pine, white 2.2 

Sweet gum 2.6 

Sycamore 3.9 

Spruce. Norway 2.4 

Tulip trees 2.7 

^Yeeping willow 7.0 

Wild cherry 1.8 

Investment are frequently made for the benefit 'of minor children. 
What better or safer security can a man make than in real estate upon 
which is planted a forest that in twenty years will produce sawing timber 
and merchantable lumber? 

In a natural grove of mixed woods but a small proportion of the trees 
possesses great value, the majority being inferior growths. This is owing 
to Nature's method of planting, through the agency of birds, animals, the 
wind and flowing waters, as well as by primitive man; hence the distri- 
bution is very irregular. It is important in establishing a forest planta- 
tion for economic purposes that they be compactly planted in systematic 
order, and as a rule each species separately. Nature. has one great pur- 
pose to accomplish, while man will have an entirely different object in 
view. Nature never observes straight lines; man must do so, if he would 
make the best use of his estate. Forest trees vary greatly as to the space 
required. Some will thrive while standing quite closely, although others 
demand much greater room for their fullest development. If planted too 
thickly, unless thinned, they suffer from insufficient food and moisture, 
afterwards becoming irreparably ruined. 

Those trees which naturally make a broad, spreading top, should be 
closely planted— perhaps 4x4 feet, in order to aid in forming an upright, 
single trunk; after this has been attained, remove the surplus trees 
gradually. 

Probably the quickest return may be obtained from black locust, one 
year plants of which may be purchased at from $2 to $3 per thousand. 
In six or eight years they will make fence posts. 

The locust will admit of close planting, 8x8 feet being ample for cop- 
pice. It -will thrive on rough and poor soil, grows quickly from the stump 



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after being cut, soon becoming sufficiently large for posts. While it will 
live for more than half a century, its value does not increase greatly after 
the fifteenth year, and should then be cut. 

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia are some original forests of 
locust, although its dissemination was not so broad as many forest trees. 
The hard and durable wood of this tree makes it invaluable for many 
purposes. 

The catalpa is a very rapid growing tree, a native of Indiana, and the 
most durable wood in the United States, having been found in good con- 
dition after one hundred years' service as posts and stockade forts. It 
attains a diameter of twenty inches and height of thirty to forty feet in 
two decades, being sufficient for a telegraph pole or for five railway cross 
ties, or it may be sawed into two hundred feet of lumber. Ten acres 
planted with catalpa at 16x16 feet, Avill contain 1,700 trees, which in 
twenty years possesses a value of $4,000. 

This tree is easily grown from seed, although it is preferable to set 
one year plants, which are sold at about $2 per thousand. Otherwise it 
sliould be grown one year in a seed-bed. 

This tree will not endure neglect, and must be cultivated for several 
years; a growth of sod is fatal to a catalpa grove. If a straight and long 
trunk is desired, it should be crowded by dense planting, say 4x4 feet, 
removing surplus trees in eight to ten years, the sale of these extra trees 
will pay for the entire cost of the plantation. During the coming fifty 
years the American railway system will require 10,000,000,000 cross ties, 
10,000,000 telegraph poles, and a vast amount of sawed lumber for which 
the catalpa is eminently adapted. Who will aid in supplying this de- 
mand? Systematic planting, thorough tillage and timely thinning are the 
requirements. 

The oak is at present our most valued tree, as it ever has been, and 
is of great longevity. Some varieties are very slow growth others are 
more rapid. The willow oak and burr oak increase from one-half to three- 
quarter inches diameter per annum. The oak requires shade and shelter 
for several years, and should be given from twenty to twenty-five feet 
space, being one of the few species which it is preferable should be planted 
with other trees. 

As the supply of walnut has beeu exhausted in America, so the oak is 
rapidly disappearing and can not last as a commercial wood more than 
ten years into the twentieth century. Black walnut, butternut, elm, chest- 
nut, all grow quickly, and should stand twelve to sixteen feet apart. Yet, 
lor a few years they must be much closer. • 

These woods will always be found in demand if a supply can be grown. 
Ten acres of any of them will in twenty years possess a value greater than 



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$1,000 at interest during the same period. The lumber from walnut, black 
and white, some years ago, sold for fabulous prices, and was in such de- 
mand that these trees were almost exterminated. When the end came, and 
quartered oak was substituted for walnut and cherry, these woods ceased 
to bring good prices. If every land owner in Indiana would plant a wal- 
nut grove to-day, a quarter of a century hence the lumber would bring 
$75 per thousand feet, or more than $2,000 per acre. 

The honey locust is one of the neglected and unappreciated trees. 
While scattering trees are found almost everywhere, there are no large 
forests of this timber, and it has not come into use largely, as no supply 
could be obtained. The wood is quite valuable, of reddish color, hard and 
durable, having a fine appearance when dressed for furniture. It is hardy 
throughout the State, of rapid growth, quickly making posts, fuel and 
lumber. It is classed with oak, by railways, for cross ties. A variety 
of the gleditschia (aquatica) growing in swamps is not so durable. This 
may be distinguished by absence of honey in the pods, which are much 
shorter than the three-thorned sort, the thorns also being single in 
aquatica. 

This is one of the admired street trees of the National Capital, and will 
thrive when many other trees fail. Nature distributes the honey locust 
mainly by wild animals and cattle, which devour the sweet pods and de- 
posit the seeds in clumps. Trees two feet to thirty inches in diameter and 
fifty to sixty feet high are often seen in rich woods. It should be planted 
thickly and thinned to twelve or sixteen feet for permanent forest. Any 
quick-growing, soft-wood timber may be used as a filler for this or other 
timber to crowd it into upright growth, and prevent the formation of 
low-growing side branches. 

WILD BL.ACK CHERRY. 

In former years this was in great demand for fine furniture and inside 
finish, but with the advent of machinery and mammoth factories, the vis- 
ible supply soon ceased, and it can no longer be obtained in quantities. It 
is worked easily, with a fine grain, rich color, taking an exquisite polish, 
giving it a high value. Few trees make a more rapid growth, and none 
would give greater financial returns, were a large quantity planted. It is 
easily transplanted while young, the berries being strewn in nursery rows. 
If allowed to become dry, the seed is ruined, and will not germinate. 

AMERICAN CHESTNUT. 

This is not extensively sawed into lumber, but is largely used for rails, 
fence posts, fuel and telegraph poles. In thickets on good land, it forms 
wood very rapidly, having a tall, straight body, but in open woods is in- 



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clined to spreading habit, with short trunk. The nuts have a commercial 
value, possessing a fine flavor and being highly nutritious. The chestnut 
is native to a few localities in Indiana, but is not generally distributed 
throughout the State. Yet there are numerous trees in cultivation which 
show that it will thrive in almost every county. It is worthy of extensive 
cultivation. 

LARCH. 

Northern Indiana has some tamarack, or American larch, which pre- 
fers a moist location. I have successfully grown it in Southern Indiana on 
a bed of gravel which is always affected by summer droughts, where its 
diameter is eight inches in a dozen years. The foliage is handsome, re- 
sembling the evergreen, although it is deciduous. In Europe the Scotch 
larch is very largely planted on waste mountain lands, and is believed 
to be very profitable. Both are of rapid growth, upright habit, easily 
transplanted, and valuable when grown, for ties, posts and telegraph poles 
and lumber. 

MULBERRY. 

The American mulbe'rry is seldom used except for posts and rails, not 
being found in large quantities. The variety imported from Russia pos- 
sesses greater hardiness in the North. Both are durable, of quick growth, 
and should be planted by every farmer in America for the birds which 
relish the berries, as by encouraging the birds the losses from insect 
depredation would be greatly reduced. 

THE FOREST NURSERY. 

Usually farmers have all the work they are capable of performing, and 
cannot add the care of a nursery, and it is uot worth while to attempt it. 
for all forest seedlings may be cheaply purchased from nurserymen, whose 
time is entirely devoted to this occupation and who thoroughly under- 
stand the business. 

Evergreens are very delicate while small; they require shade and shel- 
ter for several years, and but few skilled nurserymen grow them from 
seed. Most deciduous trees are easily transplanted when one year old. 
and much labor is saved by planting in nursery rows, strewing the seeds 
thickly, and giving careful cultivation. 

The ash, maples, basswood, beech, box elder, wild cherry, catalpa, 
chestnut, elm, hackberry and mulberry are grown from seed. 

The willows, cottonwood and poplars, as also mulberry, are grown 
from cuttings which root quickly. It is difficult to collect seeds of the 
poplars and willows. Honey locust. Kentucky coffee tree, and black locust 
have hard shell coverings which do not soften so as to enable the seed to 



161 

germinate the first year. These should be scalded, allowing the seed to 
remain in hot water some time. Cattle which eat the honey locust pods 
distribute the seeds which invariably grow, the heat of the stomach soften- 
ing the shell. Nuts and acorns succeed better when planted in permanent 
woods. 

The State demands the same or a greater revenue from taxation upon 
woodlands which produce no income to the owners while retained as such, 
as upon lands producing annual crops and a good interest upon their in- 
vestment. 

The policy of the government, therefore, is to compel the owners of 
timber lands to denude such lands because the burdens of taxation upon 
' unproductive investment is too onerous to be borne. One of the last tracts 
of grand old forest in Ohio County was taxed $5,000 for the fifty acres, 
yet it lias not produced anything for its owners during half a century. 
Recently it passed out of the hands of the owner who so prized it, and the 
new possessors, bent solely on business, cleared off the tract, rather than 
pay taxes upon it. This woods was in decline; had it not been so, the re- 
sult would have been the same. The true policy of the State should be to 
encourage the maintenance of at least one-tenth of the land in forest, and 
to this end it should release such timber land from taxation. 



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